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For a week, I basked in the glory of attending UB at one of the worst times ever, if you like football. I figured it was time to give a more comprehensive picture. So without further ado, best time to enter UB as a freshman if you enjoy Football and Basketball:
Worst Year: 2011 BB Rank 30 (20 wins), FB Rank 30: Only 1 season in, but with a strong basketball team, the class of 2015 won't stay in last place for long.
29: 1999 BB Rank 28 (26 wins), FB Rank 26: The '99 freshmen only saw 26 wins in Basketball, best year 2001-02 with 12 wins.
28: 1998 BB Rank 28 (26 wins), FB Rank 22: Like the '99 freshmen, '98 saw only 26 wins in Basketball.
27: 1997 BB Rank 27 (29 wins), FB Rank 23: The '97 freshmen enjoyed 29 Basketball wins, but 15 came freshmen year.
26: 2010 BB Rank 22 (40 wins), FB Rank 28: Only 2 years into their UB careers, the '10 freshmen don't know football, but have enjoyed back to back 20 win basketba
ll seasons.
25: 2000 BB Rank 23 (38 wins), FB Rank 24: As seniors saw the resurgence of UB basketball, and 17 wins.
24: 1990 BB Rank 26 (30 wins), FB Rank 19: Only 30 basketball wins in 4 years, 7 in the sophomore and junior seasons combined.
23: 1991 BB Rank 24 (35 wins), FB Rank 15: Enjoyed 18 wins senior season, but just missed the '96 football squad.
22: 1989 BB Rank 25 (34 wins), FB Rank 14: 34 basketball wins, and just a little better in football than the '90 and '91 freshman.
21: 2001 BB Rank 13 (57 wins), FB Rank 24: A great time to be a basketball fan, you graduated the spring of UB's run to the MAC Championship and the NIT.
20: 1988 BB Rank 19 (45 wins), FB Rank 15: Wasn't bad for basketball, 16-14-13-12-2 well it got bad at the end.
19: 1996 BB Rank 21 (42 wins), FB Rank 13: '96 freshmen enjoyed 17 and 15 win seasons before the team went bad.
18: 1992 BB Rank 18 (46 wins), FB Rank 15: Basketball highlight would be 18 wins in Junior year.
17: 2002 BB Rank 4 (64 wins), FB Rank 28: What if we take all the football athletes, and make them basketball athletes? 5 wins freshmen year, then 17-23-19.
16: 2009 BB Rank 11 (58 wins), FB Rank 28: With one year left, the class of 2009 should shoot up this list via Basketball, but barring a miracle we'll mostly remember how they came expecting football championships only to get what we currently have in football.
15: 1987 BB Rank 13 (57 wins), FB Rank 15: '87 freshmen also missed the breakout '86 football season but had a consistent double digit win basketball team all four years.
14: 2003 BB Rank 2 (71 wins), FB Rank 26: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Football was awful but basketball took off like never before.
13: 1995 BB Rank 15 (50 wins), FB Rank 9: The '95 freshmen enjoyed 45 wins in 3 years, and a 8 win football season, unfortunately neither team was able to build on their mid-90's success.
12: 1993 BB Rank 11 (58 wins), FB Rank 12: A consistently good time to be a Bull
11: 2004 BB Rank 4 (64 wins), FB Rank 19: Lost a MAC Championship freshman year, and graduated right before the MAC football win.
10: 1982 BB Rank 19 (45 wins), FB Rank 2: The SEC West of UB seasons, who cares about basketball when you're winning on the gridiron. Still only had 1 season without double-digit basketball wins.
9: 1984 BB Rank 16 (48 wins), FB Rank 3: Hampered by a 5 win performance year 1, 43 wins in the final 3 years.
8: 2005 BB Rank 7 (34 wins), FB Rank 10: 34 basketball wins, and just a little better in football than the '90 and '91 freshman.
7: 1983 BB Rank 16 (48 wins), FB Rank 1 : The '83 entrants stumbled upon the best 4 years of UB football, but were only good enough in basketball to land at #7.
6: 1994 BB Rank 6 (63 wins), FB Rank 10: Good basketball play and the best time to watch football in the 90's.
5: 1986 BB Rank 9 (59 wins), FB Rank 6: '86 and '85 tied in Football and Basketball wins
4: 1985 BB Rank 9 (59 wins), FB Rank 6: But I gave the tiebreak to 1985, they finished with a two game improvement in basketball, while '86 finished with a 2 game decrease in basketball wins. Gotta finish strong.
3: 2006 BB Rank 8 (61 wins), FB Rank 4: One MAC football championship, one basketball championship runner-up.
2: 2007 BB Rank 3 (69 wins), FB Rank 4: Had a great football run until that last year, and had a great basketball run except the first year.
The best time to enter UB in the last 30 years?
2008 BB Rank 1 (79 wins), FB Rank 6: The class of 2012. Just starting work with a 5 year plan to dominate the world. If the plan works out, you probably learned to "believe in yourself and the things not yet seen" during your freshman year as the Bulls ran to a MAC championship. If your plan doesn't work out, you'll have the resilience of the Baby Bulls who after losing a MAC Championship, rebuilt on the fly and maintained a high level of play. Coach 'Spoon showed it's never too late for a comeback.
Either way, you'll look back at a college career where you went home happy 97 times, (18 football and 79 basketball) which means you were probably 3 times happier than the class of 2003. If you are a fan from that class I tip my hat to you, you are the true heroes.